Rare And Early Lawrence Football Team Photograph / 1881

In 1880, Phillips Andover Academy played Lawrence High School (Massachusetts) in football (abutting towns), one of the earliest accounts of a public High School fielding a football team. This contest was also recognized as one of the first football games played between private and public high schools in the country.

The teams met again in October of 1881 (the Lawrence team pictured), Andover once again coming away with a win. Both the 1880 and 1881 games were played as the American rugby game, both teams switching to the collegiate football game in 1882. Lawrence was playing only a couple of games a year at this time, common for any team in these formative years.

A wonderful early and rare football photo. Photo without the mat measures  7 1/2” x 9 5/8”.

An interesting aspect to this photo is that many of the team’s players wore pillbox caps, quite rare to see in any early football photographs. Please see our blog entry dated August 9, 2022, for more on the pillbox cap.

Research note: Another photo (not pictured), erroneously identified as 1881 (but not labelled in any way as such) of the Lawrence High School football team, which we believe to be a year or two later is located at the Lawrence Public Library (Special Collections).

Turn Of The Century Princeton Hockey Team / Gresham Poe

 A turn of the century Princeton hockey team photo featuring Gresham Poe (middle row, second from the left) that we were lucky enough to pick up. Very similar photo but much larger in size to that used for our March 23, 2014 post, titled "Gresham Poe / Princeton Hockey 1902 / Northampton Hockey Trophy". Both photos share a number of the same players. Having recently added a most interesting comment to the 2014 post, I recommend re-reading that again if you have the time.

We have always had an interest in the six Poe brothers, all of whom played football for Princeton, and have a fair number of Poe related posts in this blog, including those dated: March 23, 2014. October 17, 2017, May 30, 2023, January 22, 2023, December 25, 2020, December 31, 2020, Nov 23, 2014, November 2, 2014, October 26, 2022, December 18, 2021 and February 13, 2014.

Photo measures 9 1/2" x 12". 

Harry Wright / W.F. Davis / Exceedingly Rare American Cricket Team CDVs / September 1868

 

 Once again we diverge from our primary interest of football to delve into other early sports memorabilia, which we pick up occasionally when it crosses our path and offers us a chance to do some research. In this case we post two American CDVs, taken in 1868, as it turns out the only year the photographer was located at the address stamped on the back of the photographs. Pictured are a portion of the “picked twenty-two” American cricket players that played the visiting “All England Eleven”.  We know of no less than 26 American players, inclusive of substitutes available to play the English at Riverside Trotting Park in Allston (Boston), in  late September of 1868. Only two players are identified, William Franklin Davis (played Harvard baseball in 1865 (class of ’67)) and Harry Wright, a well-known professional baseball player- both circled. Two members (George and Charles) of the Newhall clan of American cricket players, of which I believe there were eleven, and George Wright, Harry’s brother are listed on the roster and are likely also in the photos, however not being baseball researchers per se, we would have difficulty making a definitive identification of George Wright. These photos appear to be taken off Essex Street in Salem, in back of a rooming house where “rooms open every evening”.  Each CDV measures 3 7/8" x 2 3/8".

Early (1860s) American cricket team photographs are scarce.

                                  

                                                        Broadside for the Cricket Match